Subject: Lyr Add: THE ERIE CANAL
From:
Barry Finn
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 08:00 PM
Here's what I've got, it's close to what's in the DT but then some & I am looking especially for a verse that has the drinking lines in it that go something like:
I drink____ & she drinks gin
____________________________
____________she died ____sin
Also the DT has the Author as Thomas S. Allen, in J & A Lomax's "American Ballads & Folk Songs" they have it as William S Allen. Somewhere in past related threads I've seen it also said it's authored by Harrigan & Hart.
I've got an old mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
We've hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on
The Erie Canal
We'd better look around for a job, old gal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
You bet your life I wouldn't part with Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
Giddap there gal, we've passed that lock
We'll make Rome 'bout six o'clock
One more trip and then we'll go
Right back home to Buffalo
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge, I've the finest mule in town.
Once a man named Mike McGinty
Tried to put it over Sal
Now he's way down on the bottom of
The Erie Canal
Oh, where would I be if I lost my pal?
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
Oh, I'd like to see a mule as good as Sal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
A friend of mine once made her sore
Now, he's got a broken jaw
'Cause she let fly with her iron toe
And kicked him into Buffalo.
Low bridge, everybody down,
Low bridge, I've the finest mule in town.
If you're looking for trouble
Better stay away from Sal
She's the only fightin' donkey on the Erie Canal
I don't want to call when I want my Sal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
She trots from her stall like a good old gal,
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
I eat my meals with Sal each day,
I eat beef and she eats hay
She ain't so slow if you want to know
She put the "Buff" in Buffalo.
Low bridge, everybody down,
Low bridge, I've the finest mule in town
Eats a bale of hay for dinner
And on top of that, my Sal
Tries to drink up all the water in the Erie Canal.
You'll soon hear them sing all about my gal Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
It's a darn fine ditty 'bout my darn mule Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
Oh, any band will play it soon
Darn fool words & darn'd fine tune
You'll hear it sung before you go
From Mexico to Buffalo
Low bridge everybody down
Low bridge I've the finest mule in town
She's a perfect, perfect lady and she blushes like a gal
If she hears you sing about her and the Erie Canal
I like the choruses & their alternating lines except that singing it that way ends up meaning you sing the chorus alone cause every one remembers the 1st chorus but nobody recalls the other choruses.
SO has anyone anything to add that hasn't been covered in related threads & especially the missing verse with its original chorus, if it ever had one? And about the author???
Thanks to all
Barry
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sj
